Hey Mom!

It sounds like you all had so much fun up at Kinder Spring! Those pictures looked great! I'm going to ask for one thing... when you email me pictures, try to make them smaller because they take forever to load because they are pretty big. Dad can teach you how to do that. I can't wait for all the pictures to load because the connection here is sooo slow. That would help out a lot! Thanks :)

I feel bad for Dallin... I would hate to have all those disgusting nasty clothes. Sucker. I remember in 9th grade, when I was in tennis, there was one kid who never took his clothes home to wash and he wore them every single day and everyone would stay away from him because he smelled so bad. When we had to run around the tennis courts, everyone would run in front of him so no one got the whiff of whatever nastiness was coming from his shirt and shorts. Haha, oh Dallin.

As far as the African food you ate, I have not eaten that yet. The food is pretty different when you go to Congo. But, I am sure that one day I will eat what you did and I will love it! There are plantains all over there and we eat those all the time. You should try frying them! :) Sooo good.

I'm sorry about the bad news with the teeth... I'm pretty lucky I have never had any problems with mine. My cleanliness habits have definitely grown since being out here on the mission... mainly because of fear of where I would have to go to get checked up on if I did have any problems.

So, I have some pretty big news for everyone! You all ready for this? Because I sure wasn't... So we got transfer letters on Friday and I was pretty shocked with what I read. President Jameson made a recent trip to Central African Republic to see if we (The Church) could get accepted to come and preach the gospel over there. President Jameson actually met with the president himself. Well, Central African Republic has now been officially opened for missionary work and President has chosen me to be the first missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to go there! This is where it gets interesting! I will not have a companion... it is a solo outreach program where I will be asked to stay with a group of people who have received information of The Church and have been holding their own programs and waiting for years for The Church to send missionaries. Transfers will take place this Friday and I will fly over to Bangui and start the work over there! How incredible is that?! I'm kind of freaking out but I know that the Lord will help me carry on his work.

Remember in my email last week, how I was poking fun at the young woman who was called to give a talk in church and she wasn't prepared? Well guess who was "la victime" this week... yep, moi. I was in the investigators Sunday School class and the 1st counselor came in and asked me to give a talk on missionary work. Of course I accepted and I went and sat back down and said a little prayer and asked the Lord to help me say what he wanted me to say. It was incredible what happened... A whole talk outline just unfolded in my head, scripture after scripture, doctrine after doctrine. I had my whole talk outlined in three minutes!! Talk about getting a fast answer to your prayer! When we were in Sacrament meeting I was getting pretty nervous... you know how I am. I love to teach and talk but I always get butterflies!! I said another prayer and asked the Lord to bless me with peace and comfort, and almost immediately again my prayer was answered! I just sat back in my seat and my heart stopped beating fast and I felt totally comfortable. I didn't shake once when I was up there and and neither did my voice. I felt like it was the most powerful "discours" I have ever done! You always know here in Africa because you will get people nodding their heads and you will get some "mmhmm's" and some "Amen's." Afterwards, I had a lot of people come up to me and thank me for the talk and told me how incredible it was. I sang in it to... whaaaa?! I only sang a line and I wasn't even planning to. For you Priesthood holders, remember when Elder Holland was all fired up about missionary work and worthiness and he said "Do I need to hum a few bars of 'We are all enlisted'?" I think that is what he said... well anywho, that is basically what I said but I sang it! Haha, I love what Africa has done to me!

We had zone conference this week and it was incredible. President Jameson wasn't there... it was just the missionaries here in Douala but it was still super powerful. Probably one of the best zone conferences of the mission. All the missionaries had to do a little 5 minute talk/thought on a Christlike attribute and I was assigned "Faith" and I decided to narrow my subject to "Faith in Jesus Christ." I focused on how it is good to believe in Christ, meaning believing in who He said He was, the Son of God, but that is not all, we need to believe Christ. We need to believe that He can save us and redeem us and through His infinite atonement we can become exalted and receive all that The Father hath. I love teaching about that. I was inspired by what I read in "Believing Christ." That book was incredible. A struggle for me lately has been love - love for the people. There are some people that I teach that I love and I am devastated when they don't progress or when they fall, but then there are others where that connection, that love, isn't there. I NEED that love as a missionary. In the end, it is love that is driving me to serve a mission... my love for the Lord and for my brothers and sisters and my desire to bring them into the fold. Elder Nuttall talked a lot about following up with commitments and what we need to do. I asked him this, "Elder Nuttall, It is obvious that love is necessary in missionary work, so that means Satan will do everything that he can do to prevent us from finding this love for the people. What more can I do so that I can recognize the tools that Satan is using so that I can overcome this obstacle that I have and increase my love for these people?" I have been praying and even fasting for that and I haven't really found anything. After discussing that question for a little bit we came to the conclusion, that actually came from Elder Nash. We need to look at everyone we come into contact with and realize that they have the potential to become like God. They have the potential but they are stuck if they don't even know. I think having that mind set about the people I teach will really help me. I wanted to share this because maybe it could help others who are back home who are reading this. We are all in this together. I love telling that to my investigators... yes, I am a missionary and I have been in The Church since birth but I need them just like they need me. We are all brothers and sisters trying to get back to the same father... our Heavenly Father. So that is really what I have been working on this week... love for my family here in Cameroon.

So, about that transfer to Central African Republic... that was all a joke. I'm sorry to get your hopes up or to scare you half to death. But in all honesty, we did get transfer info and I will be staying in Douala! Elder Thibault though has been transferred to Pointe Noire and will leave this Friday. I am pretty bummed because I loved working with him! It was neat having a little brother under my wing these past 12 weeks. It is incredible seeing all the progress he has made. I love teaching with him and working with him. I thought for sure we would get another 6 weeks together but I guess the Lord has different ideas. Isaiah 55:8-9. So that means I will be getting a new companion! Guess what? President Jameson has assigned me to train again! We will be receiving two new missionaries and one will be going to Yaoundé and the other will be working with me. His name is Elder Lavering and will arrive on the 31st. So I will be without a companion for 4 days! Elder Nash has been transferred to Yaoundé and will be working in the sector right next to my old one. These past 18 weeks have been awesome with Elder Nash. He and I have become great friends and it will be a little sad seeing him go but I know he will do great things over in Ekounou! So there you go... the truth about transfers! So that means that I will for sure be here in Douala until October 19th. I'm happy with that because that means weekly mail! It has been awesome not having to wait as long to get letters.

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week. You are always in my prayers and I am so grateful that the Lord has been protecting you and helping you along the way.

Je t'aime maman,

Elder Schmid

Hey!!

First off, I need to apologize for not emailing yesterday. We went to the cyber café two different times and the internet was down both times so we went back to the apartment and told the lady to call us when the connection came back. Well, she called us around 8:15 so it was way too late to go do email, so now we are just doing it today! No, I was not transferred. We get transfer info this Saturday. I think I will be staying, but then again, I have absolutely no clue. Douala is no longer new to me... it is my life. It is so nice once you hit that point. That was one of the hardest things for me when I first got to Yaoundé... the transition into African life. That was a fat slap of reality.

I am glad you guys all made it back safely from Kinder Spring! I love that place so much and it is awesome to think that next time you all go I will be there with you :) I bet it made a world of a difference to have a trailer up there. How was the weather? Was their a lot of dust? I guess you will be telling me all about it in your email that you said you were going to send today. I can't wait to hear about it!

Before I forget, I was just with a sister in the branch named Bernadette. We were talking about our families and she was shocked to hear that we only talk to each other twice a year and that we only contact by email. She asked me when I would be emailing you next, and I told her in about an hour, and then she told me to say hi to you. She is awesome. We were talking about trials in our families because she is going through a very tough one and I told her about trials we had in our family and in our extended family and she was really touched by the faith that we all have. We are so blessed to have the family that we do. I am so grateful for all that you and Dad do for us. You two are amazing. I feel so lame telling you that because the words "I am so grateful" just don't do justice in explaining how I feel in my heart.

So, first off, I want to tell you about a neat praying experience I had this week. I was with Bernadette earlier in the week and we were talking about her son, Kalla, and how he had kind of faded away from the church and is led by the influences of his friends, which aren't too good. She wanted him to come back home (he was about an hour away, living with friends) and work with us like he used to with some old missionaries about 5 or 6 years ago. She asked me to pray for him and I told her that I would... and I did. We also had a progressing investigator who told us that she was going to go to Yaoundé to visit her father and we had no clue when she would get back and we were nervous because she was progressing so well and we didn't want anything to happen while she was up in Yaoundé. So, that same night I prayed that she could stay in Douala so that we could continue teaching her. I really focused on those two people in my prayer that night. The next morning we got a call from Bernadette when we were doing our personal study and she was so happy and said, "Elder Schmid, you need to come over right now! Kalla came home! Work with him! Help me!" So we finished our personal study and went strait to her house even though we still had 3 more hours of study to do. Then, later that day, we were with Rosalie and she told us that she was no longer going to Yaoundé because her father was healed and he actually came down to Douala. So BAM! My prayer was answered not even 16 hours later! James 5:16... I'm not saying I'm all righteous, or whatever, but I did pray with a lot of faith.

We are working with a lot of inactives right now, and with one we are having so much success. Her name is Marie Agnes. I think I may have told you about her already... she is the one with the mentally handicapped son. Well, when I first got here to Douala, Elder Spens and I tried working with her but it was next to impossible because she did not have the desire whatsoever. So, we basically gave up because we tried everything with her. Well, something miraculous has happened and now she is totally ready to meet with us again. We finally realized what we needed to found our teachings on (that her son is promised eternal life in the Celestial Kingdom, but will she be there? I asked her that and it really made her think and she realized that there were some priorities that she needs to change) and we are moving from there. Her problem is that she was baptized without a testimony... she felt like she was forced by her mother and by the missionaries. So, now Elder Thibault and I are teaching her, starting from scratch. We are going over the Restoration and helping her understand who God really is. She returned to the catholic church so we are having to talk a lot about the nature of God and authority and what not but the Spirit has been with us at every lesson and has testified to her of the truthfulness of our message! So, slowly but surely, she is receiving her testimony. She wants the testimony, so now we are just working for it. I love working with inactives!

Kalla returned home and when his mom called us we went straight to her house and met with him and talked to him for a little bit. He used to go out and work with the missionaries almost every single day about 5 or 6 years ago. One missionary in particular was an idol to him... a big brother. He always looked up to him. They would talk about life and this missionary would really help him. Well, obviously that missionary is no longer here, so now I am trying to fill his shoes... they are very big shoes, but I am trying my best. Thank goodness I have had some practice with Dallin and Aiden. I definitely wasn't perfect when I was with them, but they taught me a lot of things that I can use to help Kalla. He worked with us this week three days in a row and it was incredible. We are teaching him the Restoration and helping him get a stronger testimony on the foundation of our message and then after that we go out together and let him teach what we just went over. He is still pretty quiet but he is having fun! His problem now is his friends. He will be turning 16 in September... so he is at that stage in life where his friends are everything to him. He does everything they do... and they don't do the best things. So pray for me! I want to help him and his mother! It's not easy but I know that it is possible. God put me here in this situation for a reason.

Earlier this week, we were over in a quartier called cité-sic and we were with one of our investigators named Elizabeth, and we were walking to go get a taxi and I showed her a shortcut to get to a members house but then told her that she would have to jump around from rock to rock if it rains a lot because it becomes a muddy mess. She then looked at me and said, "Oh no. Mama Elizabeth doesn't jump." I couldn't help but laugh. She cracks me up. She is one of those ladies who scares you when they get upset. There was one day I invited her to come have the rendezvous over at another investigators house who lives by her so that she could make friends and it was really muddy and the dirt path was pretty bad and she got upset that I didn't tell her that the path was so bad. There were moments where I felt like she wanted to rip my head off. But hey, she is progressing!

Elder Thibault and I have two hours of companionship study every morning because of this 12 week program that we get to do. In this program there is a lot of role play practice. It is one of those things that you hate to do but when you finish you are glad you did. Well, one day I was pretending to be Rosalie and Elder Thibault had to help me understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and the necessity to read it everyday so that I could grow in my testimony of the Restoration and Joseph Smith and the Church. We went and did role play twice and then went out and actually taught her. It was so crazy because when we taught her, in real life, Elder Thibault and her had THE EXACT SAME conversation that we had role played together only 3 hours earlier. It was so trippy!

Here, in the Douala branch, when the youth know they have to give a talk they somehow 'fall ill' and can't come to church. So, our first counselor in the presidency, Marius, came up with a genius idea. He told all of the youth to prepare a talk and then every Sunday he was going to randomly call on one or two to give their talks in Sacrament meeting. He was walking around the church on Sunday right before Sunday school and was saying, "Je cherche une victime qui peut faire un discours!" (I am looking for a victim who can give a talk!) Needless to say, he found his victim, and she was not prepared. We had an interesting talk that was pulled out of who knows where. Poor girl. I hope she learned her lesson.

Well, life is amazing. I am so grateful that I am where I am, teaching the people I teach, experiencing the things I experience. I would not change one thing. I am not a perfect missionary... we all have our struggles but I am working my hardest and loving every minute of it. I have amazing friends who have set and who are setting an amazing example for me and helping me continue with faith. And I have the best family in the world supporting me every step of the way. I love you all so much!

Je vous aime,
Elder Schmid

Bonaberi

My awesome gift from Alex! (the t-shirt)

Happy to baptize, even in this water

Wading through knee high water to get where we need to go

A fun African dress



Me baptizing Christiane

Dear Mom,

It sounds like you had a blast up at the cabin! I miss that place so much. I was thinking about you all being up there a lot this week... kinda jealous... but then again, I am in the middle of Africa preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and helping others come unto Christ. That's pretty sweet :) You are lucky that the water truck was right there to get the fire out! What a blessing! (Lightning struck a tree close to my sisters cabin.)  I am sad I missed a sweet lightning storm like that, but then again, I am not, because when there is a lightning storm here it is all around you and it is sooo loud and I love it so much. Especially when you are in the houses of the people here. Their houses are very similar to the cabin... with metal roofs and basic walls. So when you are in there, and lightning strikes, you really hear it. It sounds like you had amazing weather!! Can you send some of that my way?? That would be awesome. I wish I could of been there to experience that awesome testimony meeting with everyone! I am proud of Aiden! That kid is such a stud. That is so neat that he recognized the hand of the Lord in his life and how he was protected. What a neat thing to experience. I love the testimony of children. Aiden truly is a special kid. I totally know what you are talking about when you talk about the detail of his prayers and what he prays for. He sets an example for me! You got me to laugh out loud when you wrote about Ruffles getting picked up by the owl. What a story that could have been. How is that dumb dog doing? So, Dallin and I have both had flashing lights behind us now, huh? Sweet. I'm not alone :) I'm still waiting for Caelan to get some tickets. Has she gotten in any trouble yet on the road? I'm guessing the Van De Graaffs are doing pretty well if they were able to buy that new toy. It will be awesome having that cabin all fixed up. I look forward to going up there and helping out when I get back. Or, will it all be finished before I get back? I hope you all have fun at Kinder Spring this week! Next year when you plan Kinder Spring you better do it so I will be back because I want to go!

We have an investigator named Rosaline and she is incredible. I don't know if I wrote about her last week, but I am going to this week. We had some awesome rendezvous with her and we finished the Restoration and taught the law of chastity and we really went into the importance of the Book of Mormon, and she is eating up all of our lessons and loving it. She loves being with the young women in the branch and they all sat together in church yesterday during Sacrament meeting (We have two YW age girls that we are teaching and they have been sucked into the branch by all the other young women). She is even coming to the YW activities and helping them all plan for their future activities and even participating in the activities. The YW right now are working on some talk thing and each YW took a value, and Rosaline asked if she could do one... she didn't know if she was allowed to or not because she is not a member yet. How awesome is that? We have invited her to be baptized on the 21st of July and she accepted in a heart beat. We might have to push that back though because she might be going to Yaoundé to visit her dad for a few weeks but I am hoping and praying that she will stay here. We talked with her yesterday and she said that her dad is getting better so she might not go. So that's Rosaline, she's legit.

There is an inactive member named Marie Agnes and we kind of taught her right when I got here to Douala but we gave up because there was absolutely no desire. Well, the other day, she was on my mind a lot and we got a ratévous so we went and walked by her house and as we were walking by her house she was right there with her son... I knew that God wanted us to talk with her so we sat down and started talking about life and what not. I finally started talking about the things that really matter... the gospel. She has an autistic son who has the mind of a little child. A child who is qualified for and promised life eternal. We were both looking at her boy run around chasing the other kids around and I asked, "Marie Agnes, did you know that because of Warren's state he is promised eternal life in the Celestial Kingdom with our Heavenly Father?" She answered no and then I continued, "Warren, in the end, will be in the Celestial Kingdom. That is a promise that Heavenly Father has given him. Do you love Warren? Do you want to be with him forever?" She answered yes and then I continued, "Marie Agnes, he will be there, but will you be?" Boom!! I nailed her! The Spirit was sooo strong and you could tell that he was testifying to her like none other that she needs to change her life. I went onto explain that we are promised eternal life IF we follow the gospel of Jesus Christ and remain faithful to our covenants that we make with our Heaven Father. Her big question has been, "Why, why, why?! why do I have all these trials and problems? Does God not like me?" Throughout the rendezvous I explained to her what I thought. I said, "I believe God has blessed you with Warren because he wants you so badly to return to him. You are His daughter and he loves you more than you even love Warren. He gave you Warren to help you make it to Him in the end. He gave you Warren to give you the desire and fire to endure to the end." It was a pretty powerful rendezvous and the Spirit was testifying big time. It was an incredible moment. I am hoping and praying that things will finally start to move along for her and that we can help her come back.

We are teaching a lady named Rose, and this week we taught her the commandment about the Sabbath Day and how we need to respect it and keep it holy. Well, she wasn't at church this Sunday. Wanna know why? Because she was at the marché (market) ! When her daughters told me that at church I slapped my forehead with my palm and mumbled, "Come oooonnn Rose!" Teaching people is pretty funny sometimes. Yeah, it gets stressful but there is always a little humor.

We have an investigator named Etienne and he is awesome... half of the time. He is the king of ratévous and that gets so annoying. It bugs me because when someone won't follow through and show up for the rendezvous they won't even call you to let you know. Etienne is the worst at that. But, when we do have our rendezvous they are so incredible and he has such a great desire to get baptized. He was asking us this week what exactly he needs to learn to get baptized, what the requirements were, when he could get baptized. He knows with all his heart that our message is true, he just raté's us. Its a roller coaster with him. All is well though... things will come around.

We have another awesome investigator named Elizabeth and she was out in her village last week and she brought her Book of Mormon and was talking with here family and friends about the church. One of them said, "Oh! You can't follow them! The church of Mormon is a sect!!" Elizabeth quickly corrected her and said, "I don't go to the church of Mormon, I go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And have you ever read the Book of Mormon because I am reading it right now and I am learning things that I have never known before and it is helping me out so much." When she was telling me this story, I couldn't stop thinking of that amazing talk by Elder Callister last October on the Book of Mormon and that little girl who bore testimony about the Book of Mormon to her friend. It is incredible how powerful the Book of Mormon is in the conversion process. I love that book so much. We are all so blessed to have it with us so that we can learn and increase our knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ. Elizabeth loves the book and it is her testimony of the Book of Mormon that is driving her to learn everything she can so that she can get baptized. And that is how it should be.

One day we had a ratévous and so we went to the carrefour Shell Newbell to go see if Marie Agnes would be at her house and as we were walking we walked by another inactive's house that I had never met before. Elder Thibault stopped and asked if we should go visit him. I thought that was a great idea so we did. We went up and knocked on the door and it was silent for a few seconds and then we heard, "C'est qui?" and so we told him that it was the missionaries. We heard some shuffling around and then he invited us in. We talked with him for about an hour about his life and his problem. He has a skin eating disease in his leg and it really limits his ability to get up and move around. Right before we got there, he was on his couch praying and crying asking the Lord to help him because he was in so much pain. A few moments later Elder Thibault and I were there at the door. When he was telling us this story, he was almost brought to tears... as he was telling it to us he realized that the Lord had answered his prayer. It was such a spiritual experience. I am hoping to get him back and active and to get his leg healed. I have no clue how we will do it because he has been battling with it for a very long time, but I know that God is a God of miracles.


Je vous aime,
Elder Schmid

Dear Mom,

So, I will first answer your questions! My week has been good and you will hear about it throughout the email. Chez Noura's was very good. They actually had legit burgers with fries so it made my tummy very happy. It was only like $6, so it wasn't busting our wallets. I guess that place is a Lebanese hang out, so when we got there, we walked into a cloud of smoke and when we left we smelled horrible. We all washed our clothes that night so the smoke smell didn't go throughout the apartment. We might go there again soon. Elder Thibault is doing very good. It is neat to see the progression he is making with the french. He works hard and he is definitely a little brother. I totally mean that when I say that too... sometimes when he does things I feel like I am with a little brother and not a companion, but it has been fun. Training is a lot more difficult then what I thought it would be. My appreciation for Elder Lamb has gone up so much since 8 weeks ago. Elder Lamb rocked it as a trainer and I hope I can be half as good as he was. I am totally down with you sending him all those pictures. I told him I would when I got home but I guess he doesn't need to wait! It's crazy to think that he has been home for about 8 weeks now. Time flies! Thanks for the advice with the retainers... everything that you told me not to do is what I was doing... sooo, my bad. I'm not to worried about them in all honesty... I am pretty sure they will last me the rest of my mission. But I definitely want to invest in some new ones right when I get back. You are going to take one look at the ones I have now and say, "Yup, you need new ones." So thanks for the heads up with what to do! And what the heck?! I don't remember that story about the Marin's father! And I can't believe what went down! That is nuts! That is so sad too... I can't even imagine how hard that would be for the kids. I do have one question... did they figure out why he was walking away from his house in scuba gear? That is kind of bizarre. That whole story is kinda bizarre. It is crazy to see what some people are pushed to do. I hope you have a fun time up at the cabin. Grandma told me that there are four fires up there right now. Is the cabin in danger? Are they big fires? It sounds like Utah is getting burned up! Wildfire season is always so scary... it can happen anywhere.

Alright, my week. It was good! Well...yeah, it was good. It could have been better though. Right now we are struggling with our investigators. We have had awesome investigators who were so strong at the very beginning, who read the Book of Mormon in between rendezvous, who had the desire to improve their lives, and what not. It seems like almost every single one of our investigators has hit a brick wall and stopped. It gets so irritating because you work so hard with them and you know that they have tasted of the good fruit... the love of God, and then they just stop and don't want to continue. They tell us that they want to continue but they only want a good 'bible study'... they don't want to learn so that they can change their lives. I have really been taking it to the Lord with this one... I am running out of ideas and really we are just wasting time. That is what I fasted for yesterday... to know what to do with our existing investigators, and for us to be able to find new ones that we can teach all the way to conversion and baptism. My whole teaching method has changed... At the beginning of my mission, it was very easy to check everything off and say, 'yup! They have received all the lessons... they can be baptized." And then when you talk to them about it of course they say yes because everyone here wants to be baptized. But so many people are baptized without fully being converted. We have such a high inactivity rate in the branch here in Douala and I do not want to add to that disgusting statistic. I am totally down if I only have one more baptism for the rest of my mission... I just want to make sure that they are truly converted. So that is what is going down with my sector... it sucks but I am grateful for the trial and struggle because it is only helping me become a better person and helping me rely more on the Lord. He knows everything... Sometimes I think that me, with my finite mind, can solve the problem to anything, but then reality slaps me hard in the face and I realize that I need to dip into infinite wisdom that only comes from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

This past week I was able to go on a split with Elder Spens over in Bonaberi and it was sweet! It is so pretty over in Bonaberi. It is like a developed village over there and when you are over there you actually feel like you are in Africa. They have AC in their apartment over there too, and it felt so good to get out of humidity. It is going to be hard for me to adjust to life back home where everyone has AC because I get a super mild cold whenever I am in AC for a few hours. It's funny to see what happens to me after being here for 3 months. When I was over there it rained and rained and rained and rained... the road to our apartment was a muddy river up to the knees of some people. We didn't have umbrellas either, so we decided to study a little longer in the morning and then we went out and tried to go see some of their investigators but all the roads were under 2 feet of muddy water and I wasn't to comfortable with the idea of walking where I can't see. Especially here in Africa. Glass bottles, urine, trash, sewage, etc. So we headed back to the apartment and right when we got back Elder Nuttal was there to take me back to my part of town. The next day it rained for 14 hours straight! There was so much water EVERYWHERE!! We had our first rendezvous in a quartier called Babylone and then afterwards we needed to go over the the church, so we started walking and we found ourselves in a little problem. The road that laid ahead of us was completely covered in dirty water. If we went the other way we would walk about 5x as much as we needed to... so what did we do? We took off our socks and rolled up our pants and started walking. Before we knew it, we were in water past our knees about halfway up our thighs. A little higher for Elder Thibault because he is about 7 inches shorter than me. We had to walk in the middle of the road because on either side were huge gutters and if we fell in those we would be in filthy water up to our chests. I am sure people all around us were utterly confused as to why two young white men were walking, shirt and tie, in water up to their thighs. What made it even funnier was that we both had our umbrellas out to keep us dry... while we were wading through deep water. We didn't pass up this opportunity to take photos. We took some awesome ones and I can't wait to send them to you. We wanted to today but the Nuttalls are gone taking their truck to the shop so hopefully next week. There will be some pretty funny pictures :)

So, after all that news about unprogressive investigators, we were able to receive a coordonnée from a family in our branch and the coordonnée is an older woman from the Douala tribe!! Remember what I said about the Douala tribe?? Well she is awesome! She loves the Book of Mormon and loves to read it slow and really study it and understand it. We are also teaching her two granddaughters. The only problem with this one woman, whose name is Katrine, is that she only works on Saturday and Sunday. One of her granddaughters came to church yesterday and she loved it. She is 15 years old and we had one of our recent converts who is the same age totally show her around and be with her throughout the 3 hours. It worked out so perfectly. That is what we need for every single one of our investigators who comes to church. It is tricky teaching them because no one has a phone over there so we can't really "fix" our rendezvous... we just randomly show up and pray that they will be there. It has worked out perfectly so far! Actually I take that back... they weren't there one time. But hey, 75% is still pretty good! Here is an interesting story. One of our unprogressive investigators is Albertine and she was so solid at the very beginning. Well, we have been trying to simply read the Book of Mormon with her so that we can build her testimony from that... because if the Book of Mormon is true our whole message is true. As we were reading, this other old lady that was with us, Colette, started talking about her church and what she believes... excuse me, I meant, what she knows. She started going off on the false doctrine that no one can ever see the face of God. She even said that even Jesus Christ hasn't even seen the face of God. What the heck?! Is that what they teach in that church?? It would make sense... 1 Nephi 13. She said that when God spoke to Abraham, that he didn't even look at the face of God. He simply looked away, BUT he was still listening. I was laughing so hard inside my head. I asked her where it says that in the scriptures and she told me that she saw it in a painting. She stumped me... I was trying so hard not to laugh. That is so absurd!! I guess religious art can be considered as doctrine now. Thanks Colette. I didn't even bother proving her wrong with that one. I have learned that it is useless trying to teach her... because she knows everything. She doesn't listen to us either... we would listen to her and not interrupt her or anything for 15 minutes sometimes. And then we tried to teach and she cut us off almost immediately right after we started. I don't like teaching Albertine when Colette is there.

So, I have officially been a missionary for a year!! It is crazy to think that I have been away from you all for over a year. Time goes by so fast. It is neat being past a year because now I can go back into my journal and see what I was doing exactly a year ago. I have kept a journal for 370 days without missing a day. How neat is that? I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for my journals and for how grateful I am for the diligence I have put into them. It is already paying off and they will be such a huge blessing to my future family. Even you when I get home! Then you will get my true feelings :)

On my year mark I got a sweet birthday package from Alex and she sent me this awesome shirt that says "I'M WITH LAMAN --->" its just like those 'i'm with stupid shirts'. It is pretty sweet. I have no clue how she got it but I am so glad that I have it! She also sent me this awesome daily planner and decorated with sweet photos of the witness trees in the Sacred Grove. She is so awesome. I love my best friend :) I also got Dad's letter and his letter was awesome. As I was reading it, I felt like I was sitting right there with him and he was just talking to me. I miss that guy... he is definitely my hero. I hope I will be able to respond to his letter soon and I hope that mine will be as cool as his. On va voir!

Well, that was my week. Life is going well over here in Douala. Missionary work is so gratifying. I am so grateful that I am here and I am so grateful that I still have a year to learn, struggle, and grow. The Lord has been blessing my life so much and I look forward to doing what he wants me to do so that he can bless me even more. I love you all so much and I hope you have an awesome week!

Je vous aime,
Elder Schmid

C'est comment ma mère! (Don't try to google translate that... that is bad African french)
I can't believe it! This time last year, I was freaking out because I only had four more days until I had to report to the MTC! Time has flown by so fast! Today is the one year anniversary of Aidens baptism!! That was such an awesome experience. Don't worry, I won't be burning or destroying anything this Friday. My ties are way to precious to me. And I think the pattern goes like this: 6 months - tie, 12 months - shirt, 18 months - pants, 24 months - suit coat. But no one does that over here. We are just going to go to this place called Chez Nora's and eat some nice fatty africanized american food. It will probably be just another day... nothing to special. I love the people where I am serving... you have to or you cannot be an effective missionary. But I will leave it at that... like that saying goes, love the sinner, hate the sin. I am surrounded by sin. If you and Dad came over here to pick me up you would be blown away. There are amazing people here, but the people in general, here in Cameroon, can't get away from the beer and they love their women. We had one guy in a taxi ask us how we like the women here in Cameroon and we quickly told him that we are not here for the women, but to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. He went on to say that even if you are married and away from your wives you need to be 'relieved' at least once a month. At about that moment, I started to ignore him and he went on for about 5 minutes until he arrived at his destination telling us about how he left to go to the Congo, and he was with women during all the free time he had, and when he came back he got on his knees and begged for forgiveness from his wife and he said that when his wife forgave he knew that his god forgave him. He told us that you just need to ask for forgiveness after you do something and it will be alright. Mangez, bouvez, réjouissez-vous, car demain nous mourrons. Doctrine of the devil!!! I love Cameroon though. This country has played a huge part in my maturing as a missionary.

That is so tragic... all those kids seeing our neighbor in all his saggy glory. Je suis désolé!! How was the week with Dumb and Dumber?? That cracked me up. I love Dad, and his cheesy humor. I totally take after him. I am sure Ashlyn had an awesome week with that little dog. I'm sure Aiden had a great birthday! 9 years old! Wow... I remember getting my Nintendo SP and I thought that was the most amazing thing in the world and now that is so obsolete and ghetto. I miss Sunsplash so much... well not just sunsplash, but pools in general. It is so hot over here with all the humidity and it would be such an awesome treat to jump in a pool for a little bit... but NOPE! ça va... one more year! And that means I will get my tan back too!! Awww yeah :) You are going to laugh big time when you see me. Good thing I am coming back in the summer time.

So, here is what went down this week over here in Douala. We are teaching this ami de l'église (investigator) named Albertine and it has been an interesting week. Every time we saw her we were with a member and the member and her or her husband ended up bible bashing and it was so annoying. She has hit a total brick wall in her progression. It is so annoying when you meet people and teach people and you know that they are tasting of the fruit and then Satan gets to them and they lose their desire to continue and they just ask stupid dumb questions... all which could be answered if they had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but they are too lazy to read the Book of Mormon. It is annoying because it feels like we have wasted 6 weeks... just to go no where. I would rather get denied at the very beginning with a door slammed in my face then to go for a while and see their testimony grow and then to see them deny it and quit. Its sad. Work here in Douala is so much different than in Yaoundé. It's not easier in Yaoundé but it seems like there are just more people there who are willing to accept our message and change their lives for the better.

On a happier note our ami Paul has come around and we have fixed a baptismal date with him for the 21st of July. It was cool how that came about. We met with him and Serge at the church one night and we talked about the necessity of having the desire to change, and then to act on that desire... because faith without works is dead. That has been Pauls problem. He has all the desire in the world... but when temptation comes, he falls. Well, I should say that he fell. That night we fixed a goal and if that goal was accomplished there is a promise. We promised him that if he would come to church every Sunday for the next month (so 4 Sundays), he would receive all the help and power from the Lord to overcome his temptation to drink alcohol. The Spirit was really strong throughout the rendezvous and he knew that that promise could and would become reality if he put his faith to the test. So, he told us that night that he will no longer miss church and that he will be there for every Sunday from then on out. I know that the Lord will accord him the power necessary to overcome this trial as he puts his faith to the test. I love this work!

As you have read in my past emails, there are waaayyyy to many inactives here in Douala. We got an updated member record sheet from September 2011 and there are over 300 members on that list... we have like a 65% inactivity rate here. So, with that nasty statistic we have really been focusing on our inactives. Elder Nuttall ordered GPS units for each companionship here in Douala, and with that we try to find every member and get their coordanates because addresses don't really exist here. We are trying to find all the members telephone numbers and what not so that we can get into contact with every single one and work with them to try and find out what happened. There are sooo many that we still need to find. It will be a hard, long work but it will be worth it. We have already found success and we had 4 or 5 inactives at church yesterday so I am happy! The worth of souls is great in the sight of God. We received a coordonnée from this amazing family in our branch and she is from the tribe of Douala. I swear that is one of the lost tribes of Israel. The strongest people in our branch all coindedentally come from the tribe of Douala. So anywho, we got a coordonnée and we met her and she took us to her house to meet her whole family, and as she was walking, she kept on telling us this, "Parmi les hommes je suis pauvre, mais selon l'évangile de Jésus-Christ je suis riche." When we got to her house we knew exactly what she was talking about. She was in one of the most rundown shacks I have been to since arriving here to Africa in September 2011. And yet, her family was so happy to have us there and they were so excited to learn about our message. They now have 4 Books of Mormon floating around that house with a lot of brochures and they are all reading! I am really excited to teach this family. I love teaching families! The Gospel is all about families and I know that this family will be one of the richest families in the eternities if they but accept our message.

There was this pretty sweet fight in this area called Cité-sic. There were these two kids who were about 10 years old. One was a boy and the other a girl. They were pushing each other around and yelling and getting into each others faces and then the boy made a very bad mistake... he took a swing at the girl. She went OFF on him and nailed him with punch after punch and body slammed him and tackled him and punched him some more. The boy was furious because he was just getting whooped on. People came and broke it up but he insisted on continuing, and with every approach he was humiliated even more. Eventually this boys mom came and guess what she did... she continued to beat him! She was slapping him and threw him against a wall... she was angry because he was fighting a girl. Poor kid... his ego took a huge hit that day. Beat up by two women.

I finished reading "Believing Christ" and it was such an incredible book. Thank you so much for sending that to me! I learned so much and I can't wait to go through it again to really dive into it and read all the references and what not. I had one of the most amazing studies of my mission on the 23rd and I only read four verses... Mosiah 15:8-11. It was neat just putting things together and understanding things and pondering in detail certain principles and doctrines found in those verses. I am trying to write about it all in my study journal and I have about a two and a half pages written so far. I think if I finish by next week I will email it to you. We'll see. Well, life is great over here! I hope you all know that I am loving my mission and I am growing so much. I hope these emails are not boring to read... I feel like I am so boring when I write. It is so hard to explain to you even a fraction of what goes down over here... not only am I on a mission but I am in a completely different world. I love my mission :)

Je t'aime, maman,
Elder Schmid

Dear Mom,

Let me answer your questions right off the bat. The part I appreciated is when you were talking about the memories you had of when I was born. Did you honestly think I would appreciate the title greeting over that?? I printed off your email and I wrote that memory part in my journal so I can read it whenever I want :) My birthday was honestly just another day. The only time that it really felt like it was my birthday was when I opened your package. Other than that, it was just another day, going out and teaching our Heavenly Father's children. We had an amazing rendezvous on the 15th that I will write about later in the email. I loved your package so much! Thank you for the gifts! I love the ties so much! And thanks for the Gillette razor! I have that sweet norelco but it just sucks here in Douala because it is so humid and it just tugs on my skin, but back in Yaoundé that was the only thing I used. I love that book you sent me. I have been able to translate part of it and incorporate it into my lessons! The beef jerky is amazing... yes, there is actually some left. I have managed to ration out my jerky so it lasts a little longer. The pictures were by far my favorite part!! I love my family so much and I am so happy that I have some more pictures of you all! Keep them coming :) Especially the ones you just emailed to me. About those pictures, what's up with Dallins hair? Its long!! It is so weird seeing how much he is changing!! And you sent me a picture of Caelan kissing some guy on the cheek... who the heck is that? She is too young for that!! :) Caelan is gorgeous! And so is Darian and Ashlyn. I really like the outfits that Darian has! She seems much older than her age. The temple looks amazing! Any news yet on when it will be finished? Will I be home before the dedication? Bronson is HUGE!!! There are little children around here who are almost twice his age and he can sit on them and squash them... and its not because they are not fed or malnourished... they are just small! Thank you for the picture of you, Bronson, and Louise. I am going to go show that to her brother, Abega. I know he will really like that. He is struggling right now with marriage. Things aren't working like he thought they would so he could use some cheering up. So yeah, my birthday package was awesome! It was opened before I got to it, but I don't know if anything was taken. I sure was happy though, with what I got :)

So I got a hair cut by Elder Thibault a few hours ago... I am now rolling with a #2 buzz cut :) It feels niiiiice.

Here is a little update with Serge. He is still struggling with friends and work and finding time to meet with us. But I know that all the prayers are being answered. He knows that our message is true and I know that he has felt the spirit push him to continue with us... but that is as far as our prayers can go. He still has his free agency and lately he hasn't been using that in the best way... well, you know what I mean. But we are still with him trying to help him as much as we can. This past week I have had some really neat experiences with recognizing the promptings of the spirit. I was meeting with this less active member and we were discussing some of her problems and I read a scripture in Moroni, and as she was reading that scripture, I had the distinct impression to ask her what struggles she is facing in her life at the moment. I was kind of puzzled with why I had that impression, but after being a missionary for almost a year, you learn to just act... so I did. She came out with some major problems and now we are really helping her build her faith to overcome all of her trials and temptations. It was neat how the lesson totally changed direction and it was completely guided by the spirit. A few days later I was teaching, and as I was teaching, I had this weird sensation come over me and it was like a voice in my head telling me to stop talking... so I did. And almost immediately, Elder Thibault came in and nailed our investigator with some amazing teaching. It wasn't because I was talking, so much, but that I needed to let Elder Thibault take the lead because what he had to say was more important for the investigator than what I had to say. It was neat seeing how the spirit works with us missionaries throughout our lessons.

We have a member who lives out in an area called cité-sic and lately he has been off work and he told us that if he is not working he wants to spend his time serving the Lord. So, we had taught 8 lessons this week with him helping us and it was only two days that he was with us. I love this mans faith and desire to go out and serve and fulfill his responsibilities as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We had an investigator named Shella that we contacted about 10 weeks ago and she is officially dropped. She knows... she knows that our message is true but she doesn't want to change her church. I had her pray right there in the middle of the rendezvous and ask the Lord if we (Elder Thibault and I) were telling the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So after what seemed to be like a 5 minute silence, she said that she knows that she needs to continue. So we started talking about her church attendance and how, in order to progress with where she is at, she really needs to go to church because she had received almost all of the lessons we have to offer as missionaries. Her parents are really anti American and think that Elder Thibault and I are possessed with the devil, and over the past month they have been really getting into Shellas head and now she totally believes her parents and she doesn't want to go to church where the devil is. Her story is so weird because she knows our message is true but she thinks we are possessed by the devil. In the end we told her that we can't continue with her if she was not willing to continue progressing with us and she seemed totally okay with that. I looked at her in the eyes and told her something that went along the lines of this, "Shella, listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you. I know with all my heart The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Kingdom of God here on earth. I know that through the ordinances done in this church you can actually receive eternal life and exaltation. I know and I testify to you with everything that I have that our message is true and that you need it. Always remember what I just said and don't let it stand against you in the end." Thinking back it was pretty bold and harsh, but after testifying like that I felt relieved because I know I had done all that I needed to as a missionary and that I won't get in trouble in the future because of my lack of effort. So, its sad that she is gone but I am glad that Elder Thibault and I can move on and help other people.

On my birthday we went and met with a man named Etienne. He told us to be at his house at a certain time and so we were but he wasn't there yet, but his older brother gladly let us come in and he told us to sit down. After seeing his smirk, his huge picture of him on the wall dressed in his pastor robes, and the certificate claiming ecclesiastical authority, but reeking of apostasy on the wall behind us, I knew exactly why he had invited us in. He immediately told us to preach. So I started talking about our message of the Restoration and once I started talking about the Book of Mormon he rudely cut me off and told me that he didn't want me to ever talk about the Book of Mormon again. He then went on to prove his stupidity because he had the guts (I should really say immaturity) to pull out Revelations 22:18-19 and said that no one can add to the bible. Rookie mistake! This pastor, who kept on pointing to the certificate, who kept on telling us that he went to so many years of pastor school, didn't even understand how the bible came to be the bible. I could have bible bashed with him so easily but I kept my mouth shut. We showed to him our dignity and let him try to tell us how we are young and naive and how we have been led away by our foolish parents. Etienne finally showed up and invited us to come outside and so as we got up, I looked at that big jabba the hut on his couch and said, "I know with all of my heart that the Book of Mormon is true and that it contains la plenitude de l'évangile éternelle." He can never bible bash my testimony. Take that. We had an amazing rendezvous with Etienne!! I invited him to go to the church with us so we could do the rendezvous there because I didn't want to be around his brother and he gladly accepted. We had a whole 45 minute lesson on the Book of Mormon and it was the best Book of Mormon lesson I have ever been a part of. Etienne knows that the Book of Mormon is true and is so excited to have it. We talked about the church and priesthood authority and he asked if he would need to change his church if he was to meet with us. I went on to explain that we are not here to say that all the other churches are false but we know that if you continue with us with receiving these lessons and you continue to read in the Book of Mormon, a desire will grow from within you. A desire to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He totally agreed and told us right then and there that he knows that our church is true and that he would be there on Sunday (which he was) and that he will go there for the rest of his life. It was awesome to hear that, but after being here in Africa for almost 10 months we'll see how serious he was. I have so much faith in this man. Etienne is awesome!

I got into a bible bash yesterday and made a man look like a fool... well really he made himself look like a fool. He tried discrediting our message by saying that there is no man in between Jesus and us, so therefore prophets are fake and we should not follow them. I then had him read Amos 3:7 and asked him to explain what that verse meant. He couldn't. He tried, but failed miserably. He contradicted himself so much throughout the little discussion. In the end he was telling us that we were prophets and that he was a prophet and that everyone is a prophet. It was so wack. He is the husband of one of our investigators and he wouldn't let his wife come to church. I called him out and said, "So, what? You are God now? You can make the choices for your wife? God gave everyone free agency and that is something that no one can take away. God won't even make a choice for someone because that would go against himself. We are here to choose and through our choices we can make it back to our Heavenly Father. You have no right whatsoever, even as a husband, to tell your wife where she can and cannot go to church." He tried to fight back but his words were choking in his throat. Victory. Even after that, we finished with a prayer and we were laughing before we left. I love Africans.

So that was my week! I love my mission and I am learning and growing every single day. I hope all is well for you back home!! I love you! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AIDEN!!! I can't believe that it has basically been a year since him and I were in the baptismal font over in the stake center. Time flies. I love you bud!

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid